One of the most encouraging trends in recent decades is the enormous interest which is being shown in Green issues and conservation. The book Genesis tells us that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" and how "God saw all that He had made, and indeed it was very good". We can see from the very first chapter of the Holy Bible that Creation was an act of love. Humans are meant to be co-workers with God. That means that we should also love the world, that we should care for it with tenderness and treat it with great reverence. Christian Stewardship must include a wise stewardship of creation. This should not only affect our thinking globally and nationally but also locally. We should begin by exercising reverence, tenderness and love towards the environment in our own locality and community. Kelvedon in Bloom is one splendid and praise-worthy example of such a local initiative in action. I was also greatly impressed this summer when I visited the various Open Gardens in Feering. Many people have lavished great care and devotion on their gardens and it was a joy and a privilege to be allowed to visit them. It is almost instinctive to tend the plots of earth around our homes and to cherish the plants we choose to grow in them.
Our love of gardens is reflected in Holy Scripture which begins with a garden and ends in a garden-city. Significant episodes in Jesus' own ministry took place in gardens - on the night of His Passion He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Following the crucifixion He was buried in the Garden Tomb and after the resurrection Mary Magdalene encountered the Risen Lord in the Easter Garden.
It seems clear to me that the recent upsurge of interest in things environmental and Green can be regarded as a clear desire to return to the paradisal state. Following the stories of creation the Bible presents us with a picture of the perfect state, we are given an image of great harmony between humanity and creation in the delightful account in Genesis of the Garden of Eden - paradise on earth. However, that harmonious image is soon marred by humanity's disobedience. Like it or not we live in a fallen world. In succumbing to temptation Adam and Eve dared to challenge God. They wanted to be like Him in all His eternal glory; to think as He thought and thus know the difference between Good and Evil. Yet in giving in to temptation they lost their innocence and they lost their idyllic home. As a result of their disobedience they were banished from Paradise and had to go and live in the land east of Eden - the waste land.
Yet none of us has lost that deep yearning to return to our original paradisal home. There is a restlessness within and we shall never be fully satisfied until we are restored to that state of being which pertained before the Fall. We long deep within our souls for that prelapsarian existence. We all have these inner inklings for something better, something higher, something richer, something deeper than our present lives. As St. Augustine of Hippo once profoundly stated:- "Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee".
A return to God is the only answer and the only satisfactory cure for this restlessness. God in His infinite mercy and compassion has taken the initiative and has provided the means whereby restoration may be achieved. In sending His only begotten Son for our salvation - God has acted decisively. Jesus is the only One who can bring about this desired restoration, for He alone is One with us and One with God. Only by being "in Christ" can we achieve that which our souls long for - harmony with God, harmony with others, harmony with creation and harmony with ourselves.
EVERY BLESSING,
Father David